A different kind of voter fraud — one to actually be worried about

Voter registration fraud takes on a whole new meaning at Kennesaw State University, following reports of “unauthorized individuals” wielding clipboards and targeting black students, potentially with fake voter registration forms. The school sent out an alert to students, warning them of these concerns.

The scheme is to have students fill out forms and believe they’ve registered to vote — but all of those registration forms just end up in a dumpster somewhere.

It turns out, the university has had these sorts of problems in the past. There have been previous unauthorized voter registration activities on campus that resulted in students finding out they had never actually been registered to vote come election day.

Michael L. Sanseviro, Kennesaw State’s dean of students, sent out an alert telling students, “We have had students in the past not be able to vote on Election Day because they completed a form with an unauthorized person and were never properly registered.”

Although school officials would not confirm any specifics, both the talk among students and the tone of the alert suggest serious concerns about the intent of the “unauthorized individuals.”

Thankfully, other schools in the state have not reported similar activities. It’s scary to think how effective this sort of deception could be — walk around a college campus with voter registration forms, spend a day getting lots of students to “sign up” and then simply toss them all out when you’re done. Hundreds of students believe they have successfully registered to vote, only to find out on election day they won’t be allowed to cast a ballot.

Well, nothing of course. Black Georgians being targeted and disenfranchised — sometimes with the help of deputy sheriffs — doesn’t seem to be worth any official’s time in this state. And despite the recent ruling that North Carolina’s voter ID laws and other reforms are unconstitutional, Secretary of State Brian Kemp isn’t worried about Georgia’s similarly restrictive, similarly disenfranchising laws facing the same fate.

If you want to register to vote or confirm your voter registration status online, go to the “my voter page.”